The State government has issued a notification underlining the guidelines for the conditional release of declared foreigners housed in detention centres for more than three years.
While over 300 detenues have completed three years in the detention centres, police sources say that in another year’s time half of the 1,100-odd inmates will be eligible for conditional release.
The condition for release would be execution of bond with two sureties of Rs 1 lakh each of Indian citizens. The detenues will have to specify verifiable address of stay after release. Biometrics of each inmate’s iris (if possible) and all 10 fingerprints and photos will be captured and stored in secured database. The released foreigner will have to report to the police station every week and notify if he/she changes his/her place of stay.
In case, the released foreigner violated the conditions, he or she will be apprehended and detained again.
The six detention centres now have 1,145 declared and convicted foreigners. The Kokrajhar centre has 177 inmates, Goalpara has 273, Dibrugarh 46, Tezpur 357, Jorhat 220 and Silchar 72. Altogether 335 foreigners have been detained in the camps for more than three years.
A total of 25 declared foreigners have died in detention camps so far.
The State government had proposed conditional release of the foreigners during a hearing of a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by activist Harsh Mander that highlighted the plight of people lodged in these centres, and the Supreme Court had accepted the proposal.
